The completely submerged entrance to the underground carpark in Valencia(Image: SOLARPIX.COM)

Spain's 'mass grave' underground car parks give up their terrible secrets

Scuba teams of rescuers have searched underground car parks at Spanish shopping centres which are filled with hundreds of cars, potentially making the sites mass graves

by · The Mirror

Rescue teams fear they will find mass graves filled with hundreds of bodies once flood water has been pumped out from underground car parks in Spain.

The sad death toll from last week’s shocking flooding in the Valencia region of the east of the country currently stands at 213. However, the number is feared to jump “by the hundreds” once work to remove water from huge underground car parks is complete.

Photos at Bonaire Shopping Centre, near Valencia, show the entrances to the large underground structures completely submerged with muddy brown water. Scuba teams have been deployed into the gloom and found hundreds of vehicles waiting to be searched - potentially making the site a mass grave as people who raced to leave the car park as the water level began to rise in the storms were unable to escape in time.

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Rescue teams deployed into the foul water have found hundreds of cars( Image: SOLARPIX.COM)
King Felipe VI was hit with mud and other objects during a visit( Image: AFP via Getty Images)

A source said over the weekend: "The most shocking scene is that of the escalators disappearing and sinking into the muddy pool the Bonaire underground car park has become. The brown water is still there.

“For sure, there are dozens of unusable vehicles floating around. It remains to be seen whether there are also victims who were trapped, because in their attempts to escape many people tried to leave by taking their vehicles."

Bonaire is one of the country's largest centres of its kind in Spain, equivalent in size to 100 football fields with 123 stores including Zara and H&M, 34 restaurants, a bowling alley and a 12-screen cinema. Whereas it would usually have been packed with shoppers at the weekend, the only people present were rescue teams and, sadly, looters making the most of the temporarily abandoned shops.

Firefighters use a crane to dig up the wreckage of a car in search of victims( Image: AFP via Getty Images)

More than 2,000 people remain missing after the floods, one of the worst natural disasters to hit Spain in recent memory. Yesterday, King Felipe of Spain was pelted with mud and heckled by furious crowds when he visited the Valencia region. A hostile crowd shouted "murderer" and "shame" at the king, who was asked why nothing had been done to prevent the tragedy.

It comes amid growing discontent in Spain over the authorities' lacklustre response to the floods. Volunteers and local residents said they have been forced to plug the gap amid an apparent lack of personnel to help with the rescue effort, while others say potentially life-saving flood alerts were issued too late on Tuesday evening.

A woman takes a moment amid the scenes of devastation in Spain( Image: AP)

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was evacuated from the scene as the crowd grew more unruly, according to Spanish broadcaster RTVE. Police had to step in, with some officers on horseback, to keep back the crowd of several dozens who hurled mud and wielded shovels and poles threateningly.